Aaron Pickering
More than 50 percent of people with chronic conditions don’t take their medications properly, which affects their well-being and the ability for direct care workers to provide the highest quality care. To help remedy this problem, the Direct Care Alliance is proud to be a committed partner in the National Consumers League’s Medical Adherence Campaign, an initiative aimed at raising awareness of the importance of good medical adherence. The campaign targets consumers and health care practitioners nationwide, and will be rolled out in early 2011.
On July 20, I joined a committed group of public and private organizations at AARP in support of the campaign. The meeting brought together stakeholders from across sectors, including the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, the American Medical Association, and the National Institutes of Health. I spent a couple minutes speaking to the group about the role of direct care workers in ensuring that consumers take their medications as directed by their doctors. In fact, many in the group were surprised to learn that many consumers are spending more time with their direct care workers than their physicians, and develop a high level of trust in the worker. If the goal is for consumers to understand medication adherence, than nothing will reach them quicker than the direct care workers that interact with them every day.
NCL is now collecting adherence tools and resources for consumers and health care practitioners. The collection process will take approximately 15 minutes of your time. Access the electronic form here. To learn more about medical adherence and NCL’s campaign, visit www.nclnet.org.
